November 23, 2006 Crystal - deeeeeeeep

After brother "Per" called me from Crystal on Wednesday and calmly described a "face shot day",  I felt compelled to validate the conditions for seniors.  Thursday's report of another 10" on top of the 29" previously added up to 39".  It wasn't safe for my buddy to be out there alone again.  Being a good ski buddy, he agreed to drive and I was able to smooze one of his Crystal book tickets.  Now, here's a true ski buddy who has respect for seniors.  Once I got my ticket I made a short detour into the restroom and upon my return the 6 pack was loading early and he was gone.  I'm certain he was doing control work for me.  It was snowing hard during our entire 3.5 hours on the mountain so he vanished. 

It didn't take long to find him.  We are creatures of habit on powder days.  We just happened to be a half lap behind each other.  As others described on the 22nd, the conditions are wonderful.  We found most ridgelines still a bit "sketchy" but it is November.  Most of the runs were boot to knee deep powder and even for me at 6'3" there were abundant face shots.  We skied cautiously around trees and our ski bottoms were like new at the end of the day.  High Campbell was open again but today they opened Campbell Basin.  The traverse along the ridge was peppered with rock but the low traverse was clean.  Once below the ridge about 100' the powder was billowing at my waist as I entered the "white room".  I made the mistake of stopping near the lower trees to see where I was and became "stuck" in waist deep powder.  We finished the last run down CMAC and had the thrill of powder billowing in our faces.

My mind wants to return on Friday but I'm uncertain if I can get a quad transplant by morning.  It's cold, dusty and deeeeep out there.

Zap

Thanks to everyone who left half way through the day it went from super busy to abandoned in only a few hours it felt as if we had the whole sunnyside face to ourselfs

Oh it was soooo wonderful ;D cant wait to get back out there this weekend!